Casentino Valley - Handicraft
Woodwork has been for centuries one of the leading handicrafts; Badia Prataglia and Moggiona have been for years the major woodwork centres of the valley and they have carried on with this tradition up to today. Every two years (even years) the exhibition named "Le Forme del Legno" (The Shapes of Wood) is organised in Pratovecchio.
`Panno Casentino`
The cheap and coarse
wool produced in the valley since the Middle Ages was the raw material for the production of the thick, rough, hard-wearing
Casentino cloth, famous all over the world. Originally worn by monks and mountain-dwellers, it has been handed down to us in a variety of colours, even if the predominant ones remain the traditional orange and green.
Wrought-iron workmanship gave rise to the "National Biennial Exhibition of Metalwork" in Stia (odd years), a select exhibition of master craftsmen coming from all over Italy and the world.
From generation to generation, these real masters have handed down each other the secrets of
engraving, cutting and working stone. Every year in September, an interesting "Stonework exhibition" is organised in Castel San Niccolò, in order to preserve this artistic and artisan tradition.
In Stia and Soci you can buy the Casentino cloth; stone works are on display in the numerous shop-windows of the craftmen of Castel San Niccolò; wrought-iron workshops are to be found in Castel Focognano, Santa Mama, Capolona and Castel San Niccolò, whereas Moggiona and Badia Prataglia can offer tourists pieces of furniture and a variety of wooden ornaments; Poppi and Stia house many workshops practicing the craft of weaving.
... from
Casentino Sviluppo e Turismo
